


protect the ones you love

by dryadfiona



Category: Tomb Raider & Related Fandoms, Tomb Raider (Video Games)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Pining, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2020-02-29 08:53:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18775051
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dryadfiona/pseuds/dryadfiona
Summary: They get off the island and go straight to a hospital. Lara waits for Sam to wake up.





	protect the ones you love

The chair Lara's sitting in is uncomfortable, the room's too cold, and the smell of this place is driving her insane. She shifts, wishing she'd remembered to bring a blanket or a pillow, completely unwilling to leave and grab one. What if Sam woke up while she was gone?

Sam, always a big and boisterous person, looks...small, in the bed. She's peaceful, thankfully--she was having awful nightmares before she woke up long enough to sign a consent form for painkillers--but Lara's struck by how fragile her friend looks.

That could be the PTSD talking, though.

Lara flinches when the door opens. A nurse quietly murmurs an apology, walking over to check Sam's IV and vitals.

"How is she?" Lara asks.

"She's doing fine," the nurse says.

"When will she--"

"We still don't know." The nurse smiles at her, only looking a little frustrated. Lara knows she's asked far too many times, and that there's no way to tell, but she has to ask. She hates not knowing things, digging around for artifacts and answers in every aspect of her life. Sam always teased Lara about it, reminding her that there was no need for her to know  _every_ detail about whatever drama was unfolding on campus that week, but pestering Lara for details whenever it piqued her interest. 

She just hates being in the dark about things. Sometimes she thinks part of the reason she loves archaeology so much is that it's digging for answers in the most literal sense, sometimes things that mean nothing, but answers to questions that she'd never even thought to ask.

"Thank you," Lara says, leaning back in the hard plastic chair, staring at Sam's face.

She's calm. Lara can't stop thinking about the expression on her face as the fire raged around her until it didn't. She also can't get the smile Sam had on her face while Lara was carrying her down the mountain out of her head, but for an entirely different reason.

Someone knocks on the door.

"Come in, Jonah," Lara says, perking up the slightest bit.

"How'd you know it was me?" Jonah asks. He, saint that he is, has brought Lara some food and water.

"You're the only one who bothers to knock," Lara says with a roll of her eyes. She'd talked to the staff about it, explained what they'd been through as vaguely as possible, but none of them seemed to remember (or care).

Jonah sighs, handing Lara some chocolate thing clearly from the vending machines in the hall. Still, seeing food reminds her that she's starving, and she tears off the wrapper and practically inhales it.

"If I'd known you were this hungry, I'd have made a full meal," Jonah jokes, and Lara knows he'll be here tomorrow with breakfast. (Possibly even tonight with midnight-dinner.)

"You don't have to," Lara says.

She wants to talk to Jonah, she really does, but Sam keeps grabbing her attention with every tiny movement. A twitch of her hand, quietly muttered nonsense, even the rise and fall of her chest as she breathes makes Lara want to stare until her eyes burn, just to make sure she's okay.

"...Lara?"

She starts. She hadn't realized Jonah was saying anything.

"How long has it been since you've slept?" Jonah asks.

"I'm fine," Lara snaps.

"That's not what I asked."

Lara groans. "I don't remember."

She does, actually. She's fairly certain the last time she slept was on Yamatai. Every time she starts to doze off she remembers waking up to find Sam gone, and the adrenaline makes her jolt of the chair and reach for a climbing axe that she wasn't allowed to bring into the hospital.

(She may have sharpened a knife from the cafeteria into a shiv. Just in case.)

"You need some sleep."

Lara adores Jonah, but part of her wants to scream at him, tell him he doesn't  _understand_ , this is  _Sam,_ this is the person she cares most about, and she can't lose her again.

"I need to be here when she wakes up," she says instead.

Jonah sighs again. He's been doing that a lot more since the island, Lara thinks. "I'll be right back."

Lara turns back to Sam, bringing her legs up on the chair and hugging her knees. She tries to ignore how her anxiety calms at that, as if protecting her stomach is all it takes. After skinning so many animals, shooting so many people, though--it does help. She'll take whatever she can right now.

-

She wakes up, one knee awkwardly pressed against the side of the chair, the other resting on the floor in front of her. Her back hurts almost as much as it had after--well, any of the climbing she'd done on the island--but she's warm. It takes her a second to realize she has a blanket draped around her.

 _Jonah_ , Lara thinks with a grin, wrapping the blanket around her.

"You know," Sam says quietly. "I have a thought."

Lara moves so quickly that the blanket drops straight to the floor. "You're awake!"

"You look like shit," Sam says. "That's my thought."

Lara laughs, hugging Sam as gently as she can. "Give me just a second to grab a mirror! Look who's talking."

"Ugh, don't, I'd rather live in ignorance," Sam says. She has her hand on Lara's back, gently rubbing circles. It probably isn't actually doing anything to help with the sleeping-in-a-plastic-chair-after-days-of-heavy-physical-exertion thing, but she melts into it. Minutes pass, and Lara realizes she's made her way onto Sam's bed. She should get off--this bed is barely big enough for Sam let alone for both of them--but she's been so fucking worried.

Sam moves the hand on Lara's back to her head and starts idly playing with her hair. They're curled into each other, holding hands with their free hands. Lara has her other hand on Sam's face.

"How do you feel?" she whispers. The moment's fragile, and she doesn't want to break it.

"Probably as bad as you do," Sam whispers. She turns her head to kiss Lara's palm. "But we'll be home soon."

"We will," Lara says.

She doesn't know which one of them moves first, but their lips meet in a kiss gentler than Lara can remember. She thinks this might be softer than even their first kiss, but Lara's still so tired and Sam's literally lying in a hospital bed and she thinks they're both being careful with each other.

They rest their foreheads against each other and drift off to sleep, hands still entwined.


End file.
